Editorial: Do more to keep guns from the dangerous

2013-01-16 15:51:59

The Second Amendment, ensuring the right to keep and bear arms, is part of our nation's fabric. It is culturally significant and is something that has brought our country great pride, great success and at times, great pain. As President Barack Obama and lawmakers begin to address the topic, and America now engages in a broad debate about guns and their place in our society, this is an opportunity for serious discourse and, perhaps, even some consensus.

President Obama called Wednesday for action to prevent gun crimes such as last month's massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, which left 20 children and six adults dead. The president believes that "most gun owners agree that we can respect the Second Amendment while keeping an irresponsible, law-breaking few from inflicting harm on a massive scale." Surrounded by children about the age of those killed at Sandy Hook, he added, "I believe most of them agree that if America worked harder to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, there would be fewer atrocities like the one that occurred in Newtown."

No argument there. The challenge is how exactly to accomplish that while preserving the Second Amendment. When pursuing changes in gun laws, the president and members of Congress ought to err on the side of preserving the ability of law-abiding Americans to purchase and possess guns.

In particular, a further discussion about gun screenings is reasonable. That should be an issue where consensus will be easier built by parties on both sides of the issue. In fact, one the 23 executive orders the president signed Wednesday directs "the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks." There might be common ground there with the National Rifle Association. The evening before, NRA President David Keene said on "PBS NewsHour" that "we have for 20 years been asking that those people who have been adjudicated to be mentally potentially violent be put on the lists of people who are not allowed to buy firearms."

More difficult and controversial will be the president's calls for a stricter ban on assault rifles, a bullet limit on magazines and outlawing of armor-piercing bullets. "To make a real and lasting difference, Congress must act. And Congress must act soon," Mr. Obama said.

Meanwhile, although the Sandy Hook tragedy and other shootings are horrific, for 20 years gun crimes and other offenses have declined in most areas of America. Some gun scholars, such as John Lott of the American Enterprise Institute, attribute the decline partly to the increased prevalence of laws allowing honest citizens to carry concealed weapons.

As the debate continues, the best thing now is to more vigilantly enforce existing gun laws. Mr. Keene noted that, in the past year, "77,000 people who were on the prohibited list tried to buy firearms," but only 70 were prosecuted. There's obviously room for improvement there. As Mr. Obama said: "With rights come responsibilities."

Gun owners and enthusiasts as well as those most concerned with the Constitution (such as our Editorial Board) are understandably worried that the president's prescriptions are merely the tip of the iceberg, or the first step in erasing the rights of gun owners altogether. But it will be our job in the coming days and weeks to protect the rights of lawful gun owners while thinking deeply about ways to prevent criminal possession and use.